Electrically powered mobile



y 2, 1969 A. DINNERSTEIN 3,456,762

ELECTRICALLY POWERED MOBILE Filed Aug. 8, 1967 ATTORNEYS United StatesPatent 01 ice 3,456,762 Patented July 22, 1969 3,456,762 ELECTRICALLYPOWERED MOBILE Albert Dinnerstein, 14-16 Granada Place, Far Rockaway,N.Y. 11691 Filed Aug. 8, 1967, Ser. No. 659,161 Int. Cl. F03g 1/08;G091? 11/10 US. Cl. 185-40 6 Claims ABSTRACTWOF THE DISCLOSURE A displaymotor which includes an electric motor attached to a string and whenenergized winds the string, and a switch which effects a circuit to theelectric motor in response to the amount that the string is wound.

mobile commonly consists of one or more cards, or cross arms withdangling objects, suspended by one or more strings from some overheadsupport; the device, and parts of it, rotates in response to someexternally produced or vagrant breeze. While requiring little energy,the movement of these breeze-powered mobiles is no more reliable thanthe breeze which powers it. Self-powered devices are more reliable butexisting powered devices to produce slow rotation either involve gearsto reduce speed as in many battery powered toys, and/or require complexor expensive electronic or mechanical elements to cause the motor tooperate intermittently.

The battery powered, direct current, electric motor is reasonablyefiicient when high speed and high to moderate torque is called for. Forslow speeds it is typically necessary to employ gears or similar deviceswhich decrease speed, while increasing torque beyond that required bymany tasks. The increased complexity increases construction cost. Thefriction in motor and gears wastes power and thus, in a continuouslyoperating device, re-

The system stores the energy of some rapidly rotating motor shaft orother moving element; the energy is stored by twisting a length orlengths of cord, string, twine, monofilament, chain, or similar thin andflexible material which is attached to the shaft or other movingelement; the system senses when a significant level of energy has beenstored, and responds by turning off the motor; the energy stored in thetwisted string is released in the form of slow rotation of a suspendedobject or objects with the speed of rotation being variable by varyingthe air resistance of the objects; the system senses when the storedenergy in the twisted string is significantly depleted and causes themotor to start and to operate until the energy store is significantlyreplenished; the cycle repeats until the power supply of the electricmotor is exhausted.

An object of the invention is to provide one or more slow rates ofrotation from a single high speed rotary powered device without the.need of employing reduction gears or pulleys or friction drive wheels.

Another object is to operate a high speed rotary device intermittently,storing the output energy of said device, and releasing it as a slowrate of rotation.

Yet another object is to detect the amount of energy stored in the slowrotation producing system and to turn a power supply on and off so as toperiodically add appropriate amounts of energy to the above mentionedenergy store.

And yet another object is to be able to vary the number of revolutionsper minute of the output without significantly varying the energyrequirement per revolutlon.

And still another object is to cause a suspended device to rotate, withthe power supply contained completely within the suspended device.

Reference is now made to FIGURES 1 and 2. FIG- URE 1 is an example of anembodiment of the invention in a form employing suspension from a singlestring. Attached to the base 3 is a small electric motor 8, a powersupply such as an electric battery 9 and a normally open electric switchmeans such as a magnetic reed switch 14. Also attached to the base, butnot shown in the figure, is some sign, signs, object or objects whichone wants to undergo rotation. These objects could be convenientlyattached at 10. All of the above mentioned elements are suspended viathe motor shaft 7 by control means such as a length of string 6 whichattaches to an actuating means such as magnet 4 which attaches to arotating energy storage means such as a length of string 2 whichattaches to some overhead point 1. The lower string 6 is of such alength that the magnet 4 is adjacent to the magnetic reed switch 14 sothat the switch responds to the proximity of the magnet by closing.

With battery in place, the above mentioned switch closure wouldactivatethe motor by means of the wires 11, 12 and 13. The rotation ofthe motor wouldtwist the string causing the strings to shorten. Themagnet would move, in respect to other elements in the device, to theposition shown by the broken line rectangle 5. The magnetic reed switchwould respond to the increased distance of the magnet by opening, andthe motor would stop. The energy stored in the twisted string wouldproduce a torque in the motor shaft. The friction between motor shaftand motor case would transmit this torque to the base of the device 3and to any displays or objects attached to the base. The device willrotate along with the objects attached to it. The rate of rotation willbe determined in great part, and can be varied, by the air re sistancegenerated by these objects.

When the string unwinds, the motor will again twist it and the cyclewill repeat until the battery is depleted.

If varied rates and directions of rotation are desired to occursimultaneously, objects may be suspended from attachments at variouspoints along the upper string length 2. The higher their point ofattachment to the string, the slower their average rate of rotation.This upper string may be a number of feet long.

FIGURE 2 shows an example of an alternative embodiment of the inventionin a form employing suspension from a pair of strings 15 and 16. Thebattery 9 connects to the motor 8 and to a metal contact element 14which is fixed to the base 3. The other wire 13 from the motor isattached to one of the suspension strings 16 so that the bare wire restsagainst the contact strip 14. The output shaft 7 of the motor has across arm 17 to which would be attached some card or other object (notshown on the figure) in such a way that shaft rotation would be resistedby air resistance or by some other force. In operation, the motor shaftwould turn; resis tance from the cross arm 17 would cause the base 3 toundergo rotation in the opposite direction. The two strings '15 and 16would twist together as shown by the broken lines in FIGURE 2 causing abreak in the circuit energizing the motor. The twisted pair of stringswould now provide energy for rotation of the system until contactbetween wire 13 and contact element 14 was reestablished. The cyclewould repeat until the battery Was exhausted.

The form of the invention shown in FIGURE 2 can use a simpler, lesssensitive, and less costly form of switch than that required by thesingle string form shown in FIGURE 1. While easier to construct, theform shown in FIGURE 2 is more likely to jump about during the electricpowered phase of its cycle. For this and other reasons, it consumessignificantly more current and would require much more frequentreplacements of the battery.

The figures and descriptions above do not in any way exhaust theinvention. Innumerable modifications are possible. For example: thedevices as shown can be turned upside down and suspended by point(s) 10,with the objects to be rotated attached along string length 2. Also, inthe variant illustrated in FIGURE 1 the magnet could be replaced by acup of mercury and the magnetic reed switch could be replaced by a pairof wires which dip into the cup of mercury. In the variant illustratedin FIGURE 2, one can employ any switch requiring only small force forits activation.

This completes the description of the embodiments illustrated herein.However, many modifications and advantages thereof will be apparent topersons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scopeof this invention.

I claim:

1. Display apparatus comprising:

(a) an electric motor;

(b) a power supply;

(c) an electric circuit connecting said power supply to said motor;

(d) switch means connected to said electric circuit in series with saidpower supply and said motor for starting and stopping the operation ofsaid motor;

(e) rotating energy storing means associated with said motor for storingrotating energy;

(1?) actuating means for opening and closing said switch means;

(g) control means operatively associated with said motor and saidactuating means and constructed and energized to control the opening andclosing of said 4 switch means upon the storing of a' predeterminedamount of rotating energy in said rotating energy storing means; and

(h) said rotating energy storing means further comprising twistablesupport means for suspending the apparatus and display attached thereto.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said control means controls theposition of the actuating means relative to the switch means byassociated twisting of said twistable support means.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein said apparatus is rotated by saidmotor which applies torque to said twistable support means when saidswitch means is closed.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein said apparatus is rotated by saidrotating energy storing means when said switch means is open.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 with means for suspending from saidapparatus objects to be rotated by said apparatus.

6. Display apparatus comprising:

(a) an electric motor;

(b) a power supply;

(c) an electric circuit connecting said power supply to said motor;

(d) switch means connected to said electric circuit in series with saidpower supply and said motor for starting and stopping the operation ofsaid motor;

(e) rotating energy storing means associated with said motor for storingrotating energy;

(f) actuating means for opening and closing said switch means;

(g) control means operatively associated with said motor and saidactuating means and constructed and energized to control the opening andclosing of said switch means upon the storing of a predetermined amountof rotating energy in said rotating energy storing means; and

(h) said rotating energy storing means further comprising twistablesupport means for suspending the display attached thereto.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,433,707 10/1922 Ehrenfeld 185403,258,086 6/1966 Romo 18540 CARROLL B. DORITY, IR., Primary Examiner US.Cl. X.R. 40--53- -7

